One day recently while on my lunch break I stopped in a thrift store which is slowly in the process of closing. It's my kind of place with lots of disorganized "man" stuff in the back! My big purchase was a box of 78 records, about all I could carry, for $20. There are some real gems buried in there. Now, like a lot of you, I always keep one eye open for any old over-the-air recordings or assorted oddities that might be on tape (any format). So, I found these 2 VHS tapes labeled only with a long list of dates. Maybe somebody recorded a segment of the news everyday? I have a tape or two where I recorded Andy Rooney each week. What else could it be? So tonight I finally pulled out my best VHS machine, a Panasonic PV-9450. (As I recall, I bought it at Wal*Mart on 12/31/99.) The first tape started out with a portion of the Flinstones-okay, so it's just a bunch of episodes of Fred & Wilma...but wait...what's this? It switched to something else but was running at the wrong speed. I figured it would correct itself but it didn't, even after a minute or so. Then I realized what I was looking at: a security video, apparently from an ATM. Well, I'll be! The Pansonic has a decent slow-motion function which let me go through frame by frame. So, not a goldmine, but neat, and sure not what I expected. I guess it was worth the dollar it cost me. The date is 1995.

There may not be macrovision circuits in 8mm camcorders so perhaps it is/was a good format for dubbing commercial tapes.....Depending on the age I'm not too surprised it still works. Back around 2004 my family bought a 8mm camcorder (could also record to memory stick) with CRT and LCD viewfinders, and it still works decently on the occasion that it sees power.

i have removed a few vhs tapes that was stuck in these tv, vcr, combos that were pretty raunchy, its funny to if you picked up the set in front of someone's house that's near you , you never forget when drive by there house it just pops back in your head. you don't get enough usable parts from these chinese sets . lol

Oh man, I have a small set of betamax tapes here that are pure platinum.
They were picked up down on the coast. It looks like almost as soon as St Helens blew, buddy threw a tape in his VCR and kept feeding it fresh tapes in Beta III mode for the rest of the day and a few more times over the rest of the week. You can spend a whole day watching the live coverage and field reports as the first damage images and ash predictions came in.
Not the kind of stuff you'll find on a youtube of National Geographic video. Unfortunately I contacted all the taped stations and they all refused to allow it to be uploaded anywhere without paying royalties or heavy editing.

Oh man, I have a small set of betamax tapes here that are pure platinum.
They were picked up down on the coast. It looks like almost as soon as St Helens blew, buddy threw a tape in his VCR and kept feeding it fresh tapes in Beta III mode for the rest of the day and a few more times over the rest of the week. You can spend a whole day watching the live coverage and field reports as the first damage images and ash predictions came in.
Not the kind of stuff you'll find on a youtube of National Geographic video. Unfortunately I contacted all the taped stations and they all refused to allow it to be uploaded anywhere without paying royalties or heavy editing.

This could be a situation where it's better to ask forgiveness than permission. I've found similar type videos of newscasts uploaded from other historically significant events.

Found these in a box of Betamax tapes I got from an Ebay seller, dating from the 70s.

Great stuff!

Something else I have: 3 or 4 cassette tapes (audio) recorded I believe in the late 80's, apparently a woman in her late 50's talking for a few minutes each day, which I think she intended for her daughter. It would probably be a good piece for This American Life or something like that. I got through at least half of the recordings & learned quite a bit about this mystery woman who worked as a barmaid at a VFW or American Legion (can't recall which) in the DC Metro area.

About 5 years ago I answered a freecycle posting for some free videotapes. It proved amazing. It was an estate being cleaned out & the deceased was a video recording hoarder. She taped & saved an unimaginable amount of stuff. The whole house was packed with VHS tapes, & I'm not exaggerating. I wish I'd take a picture. Just when you thought you'd seen it all you'd open a closet or another bedroom door & there were more. Lots of PBS & network documentaries, ranging from the late 80's on up. I packed my truck as tight as I could (and still be able to drive) & left hundreds, perhaps thousands, to be thrown away. I culled out the most interesting & found another freecycler to take the rest. Sadly, I've barely touched any of them.

Found these in a box of Betamax tapes I got from an Ebay seller, dating from the 70s.

Those vids remind me of the first two EIAJ videotape reels I got with my decks...They were of a kids birthday party, some kids singing along to "boogie fever", "The Night Chicago Died", and some other mid 70's music (which was probably new when those tapes were made)...IIRC those two songs I had not heard till I got that tape so my mind still goes to those tapes when I hear those songs on the radio...

When I got my first U-matic deck I got lots of interesting tapes of off air stuff from the Chicago/Rockford area. I've got commercials for the NEW 1973 Mopar at some dealer. Normal TV shows, odd PBS stuff from the era, and a few odd ball tapes like "Alvin Fest" which was some college physics professors getting together to honor some Alvin fellow that was instrumental in some college's multi-million particle accelerator (at least I think that is what it was...It's been a few years since I watched it).

I've got some home beta tapes most were odd not much narration lots of landscape shots folks working on a cabin (IIRC in canaidia), some parties in people's houses etc. Much of it filmed by old folks who had little idea of how or why to use a camcorder........One of the better tapes they had it sitting near a TV playing part of an 80's Olympics. It recorded part of the screen for a while, then they SET THE CAMERA IN IT'S BAG STILL WHILE RECORDING black screen and audio from the TV!...It is like a day in the life of a video camera.

I bought a high-end portable cassette recorder from a county auction once that still had a tape in it. The tape was of a convicted murderer practicing his speech for his sentencing hearing with all the apologies to the family and friends of the murder victim. Still have it around here somewhere...

About 5 years ago I answered a freecycle posting for some free videotapes. It proved amazing. It was an estate being cleaned out & the deceased was a video recording hoarder. She taped & saved an unimaginable amount of stuff. The whole house was packed with VHS tapes, & I'm not exaggerating. I wish I'd take a picture. Just when you thought you'd seen it all you'd open a closet or another bedroom door & there were more. Lots of PBS & network documentaries, ranging from the late 80's on up. I packed my truck as tight as I could (and still be able to drive) & left hundreds, perhaps thousands, to be thrown away. I culled out the most interesting & found another freecycler to take the rest. Sadly, I've barely touched any of them.